Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Bake Sale mania at my kids' public school has made me a maniac. There is just no other word for it. Maniac.

Cue '80s Flashdance flashback, but with mom jeans, rage and cupcakes.

My kids' public school has had three bake sales in May. All right out side the front door of the school so there's no way for a bake sale Grinch like myself to avoid it.

The first bake sale was at the beginning of May. At the time I thought of it as the only bake so I not only let my kids buy something, but I baked something for it, too.

I haven't baked something for a bake sale in years, ever since I became thoroughly convinced bake sales are not the fundraising answer in the age of childhood obesity.

But I wanted my kids to feel part of the group, I wanted to give-up my bake sale Grinch ways. I tried not to be complain-y about the baked goods in lieu of healthier - and yet, still festive! - options.

Anyway, you can image my surprise when a mere 10 days later there was another bake sale. In front of the kids' school. And from which I felt compelled to let my kids buy something.

I was unhappy. But not a bake sale maniac.

And then came yesterday. A note came home announcing there would be a bake sale at school today.

Yes, that's right - the third bake sale this month!

And who was holding it? Not even the school. The bake sale was to benefit the local Girl Scout Troop.

And I lost it.

That bake sale is the one that made me a maniac.

Is it not enough those cookie-pushers had already shown-up at my front door when my kids were home - and worse, my softie of a husband - resulting in us purchasing FIVE boxes of Girl Scout cookies?

I'm sorry, but if you need to have a bake sale in addition to your cookie conglomerate... it's time to find another fundraising answer.

I'm writing this on my blog because I promised my kids if they didn't bug me for anything at the bake sale today that I wouldn't write a letter complaining about the bake sale mania to their principal. I hope this counts as keeping my word. And kids, you made a wise choice today. That would've been some letter.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

My kids have grown bored with the walk home from school, but I have grown even more weary of the suburban game of chase it takes to get a parking space at their school, so unless it's over 90 degrees or raining really, really hard, we're walking home these last few weeks of school.

I discovered pretty quickly a camera in a kid's hands and the title "nature walk" makes a regular trip home from school something special.

I also wanted to try a slow cooker Cheesecake recipe I had just seen, but these two items were less urgent, but still I wanted to remember :
- Cream cheese (3 packages) and
- Graham crackers

I had a few other things to do in Chelsea, so I did those before I went to the Duane Reade at Eighth Avenue and West 17th Street (131 Eighth Avenue), which if I was the kind of person to pick favorites, would be one of mine because it has a huge grocery selection and it's open 24/7.

Seriously, this location has everything. Like gluten free cookies. And Mint Chutney.

So of course I wasn't surprised to see they had the more basic items on my list like grapes, cream cheese and graham crackers:

Surprisingly, finding the Duane Reade brand Nice! Cheddar Penguins and Nice! Popcorn was more difficult, but within a few minutes I had those items checked off my list, too.

And I was glad to see The Duane Reader sale price I had seen online was also clearly marked in the store.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, The Duane Reader is full of great deals (the current ones are good through June 2) that you can either view online or in the store.

There are also lots of signs throughout the store indicating items that are special Duane Reader deals.

I grabbed an Odwalla smoothie for the walk back to the train station, and spent the commute home applauding myself for remembering everything on my list and for being set for team snacks, class snacks and my own kids snacks for the week ahead.

When I got home, it only took me about five minutes to think of several things I needed, like now. So I'll be back to Duane Reade soon, possibly even with a written list instead of a mental one.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

My kids and I are having so fun making red, white and blue treats for Memorial Day that I got inspired to bake one more thing, so I made muffins with strawberries, blueberries and white chocolate chips. And they turned out really yummy.

Here's the recipe if you're planning to do some patriotic baking yourself over the long weekend!

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F and butter muffin tins.
2. Mix together 1 3/4 cups flour, baking powder and sugar.
3. Add the egg, milk and melted butter to the flour mixture, stirring until just combined.
4. Combine strawberries, blueberries and white chocolate chips together, and sprinkle the last 1/4 cup of flour on top. Stir them gently into the batter.
5. Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling each one about 2/3 of the way-up.
6. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

Once baked, the muffins didn't come out as red, white and blue as I had hoped (in fact, the white chocolate chips had melted completely) so I topped them with an American Flag motif using cream cheese, whole blueberries, and strawberry jelly for stripes.

My oldest daughter pronounced that the muffins "looked odd," but she ate two so I'm still going to count this recipe as a success. And yes, I can admit they aren't quite Pinterest-perfect. But odd?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I thought it would be fun to make a red, white and blue breakfast for my kids in honor of Memorial Day on the last morning of school before the long weekend. These red, white and blue ideas would also work great for July Fourth!

My two-year-old and I hit up the grocery store and returned with blueberries, strawberries and these funky flat marshallows, ready to see what we could create.

Here are three easy red, white and blue July Fourth or Memorial Day breakfast ideas - all that can be made with just strawberries, blueberries and whatever else you have in the house - we had white chocolate chips just asking to be used up, and sweetened condensed milk. Both worked great for the "white."

1. Pancakes topped with a kabob made from strawberries, blueberries and marshmallows.

2. Pancakes cut-out in star shapes and topped with strawberries, blueberries and a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk. My kids loved this one so much they insisted on having it again for their after-school snack.

3. Oatmeal topped with strawberries, blueberries and white chocolate chips. I threw a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk on this too, because honestly, that stuff tastes good in and on everything.

I also made red, white and blue muffins, which turned out really yummy. I'll post photos and the recipe tomorrow.

Because all the best parties take place on Wednesday mornings. What, you didn't know that? Well, all the best Internet parties that is.

This week, I had the most excellent task of reading all of the posts that were linked-up last week to Finding the Funny #16 and picking my favorites.

There were 69 entries in all, and there wasn't a one that wasn't seriously funny.

And yet, I did manage to pick just six favorites - all which truly made me LOL - to share with all of you (in the order I think you would most enjoy reading them - because yes, I do like to micro-manage, but don't tell my husband I said that).

Also? For any of you who are wondering what complex scoring criteria I used, it went like this. No points for style, writing, or photography. 100% was based on Was it funny? Because this is after all, Finding the Funny. If I ever felt like wavering from my stated criteria, I simply played a tape in my head of Kevin Malone from The Office saying "It's is she hot, not would you do her. Respect the game."

Thank you so much Kelley and Anna for having me be part of Finding the Funny, and if there's someone out there reading this who hasn't joined in yet, go visit this week's Finding the Funny!